In an interview by Famitsu with Hajime Tabata, Yusuke Noaora, Tomohiro Hasegawa and Masakazu Matsushita (CEO of Hexadrive), Tabata announced that Hexadrive has been helping develop Final Fantasy XV for around roughly 2 years.

Speaking with Famitsu, Tabata confirmed Hexadrive’s involvement with the game when it was still known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII and still running on its own custom engine called Ebony. Hexadrive and Square Enix started working together shortly before the timing of the E3 2013 re-branding.

When FFXV was still known as Versus XIII, the development team was focused on high expectations as they developed the game using the same methods they did with other Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles. However, their work never came together and they were stuck on experimenting most of that time. Having gone through that experience, the team realized that with their existing structure they wouldn’t be able to create a HD game with such a massive scale. The development structure and content of Final Fantasy XV was since extensively re-evaluated.

The team moved to create a new work flow that includes people from Square Enix’s Technology team as well as their Visual Works CGI division. Hexadrive’s job is to provide additional technical support and helps to form the current development structure. The result of these changes can be seen in the E3 2013 trailer onwards.

Square Enix and Hexadrive also went on location to scout caves in Chiba for use in the playable dungeon in the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo. Hexadrive had also previously helped develop The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD which released worldwide last month.

Via Famitsu.